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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I J c ^ \ THE WHITE CROSS LIBRARY. YOUR FORCES, AND HOW ^ TO USE THEM. I' .^^ BY z/ O PRENTICE MULFORD. VOL VI. NEW YORK : F. J. NEEDHAM, 1902. • *. » • • • • •• • • • • » « •• • # • • • . • • J • . , • <« « t> * w "> M srf^ vrx ^ ^\ .«' I935965A A.'.u.:, Il'MOA AND T.LI-i.., i •.'_:. JAliONS i* l'Jb8 L Copyright, xSqa, By p. J. NEEDHAM. b V • • \ a t ' I. tt * » * ,-. • • « » V • • • • • • • • • • • • • • - • • • a « 4 '•.•■• CONTENTS. Woman's real power. L^VE THYSELF. About prentice mulford. Mental medicine. Prayer in all ages. The attraction of aspiration. Cultivate repose. Good and ill effects of thought. Buried talents. The power of honesty. Confession. S The ACCESSION of new thought. CO GOD. A Supreme Power and Wisdom governs the Universe. The Supreme Mind is measureless, and pervades endless space. The Supreme Wisdom, Power and Intelligence is in everything that exists from the atom to the planet. The Supreme Power and Wisdom is more than in everything. The Supreme Mind is everything. The Supreme Mind is every atom of the mountain, the sea, the tree, the bird, the animal, the man, the woman. The Supreme Wisdom cannot be under- stood by man or by beings superior to man. But man will gladly receive the Supreme thouglit and wisdom, and let it work for happiness through him, caring not to fathom its mystery. The Supreme Power has us in its charge, as it has the suns and endless systems of worlds in space. As we grow more to recognize this sublime and exhaustless wisdom, we shall learn more and more to demand that wisdom draw it to ourselves, make it a part of ourselves, and thereby be ever making ourselves newer and newer. This means ever per- fecting health, greater and greater power to enjo> all that exists, gradual transition into a higher state of being and the development of powers we do not now realize as belonging to lis. We are the limited yet ever growing parts and expressions of the Supreme Never Ending Whole. It is the destiny of all in time to see their relation to the Supreme and also to see that the straight and narrow path to ever-increasing happiness is a perfect trust and dependence on the Supreme for the all round symmetrical wisdom and idea which we individually cannot originate. Let us then daily demand faith, for faith is power to believe and power to see that all things are parts of the Infin- ite Spirit of God, that all things have good or God in them, and that all things when recognized by us as parts of God must work for our good. WOMAN'S REAL POWER. Ck>p7right 1801, by F. J. Nkkdhjjc. This book deals exclusively with the spiritual relations of the sexes and the use of the two orders of thought or spirit which flow between them. There are two grand divisions in the domain of thought (which is really the endless domain of uni- verse). These divisions are the masculine and fem- inine. The masculine and feminine thought exists and is blended in every possible form of life, be it man, animal, vegetable or mineral, and also in many forms of life not now realized by our physical senses. The more perfect the blending between these two elements the more perfected the marriage. The principle of marriage exists in all forms of element. In man and woman is this marriage capable of the highest perfection. Through the man and woman created for each other by the Supreme as their spiritual elements blend, a power between them will be more and more thoroughly organized, and this man and woman will be able to create more and more happiness for themselves first and others afterwards. The aim and ultimate of marriage is a constantly Thought U FoTce, 2 woman's ebal powbe. increasing and expanding happiness through the rounding out and development of the spiritual powers of the man and woman destined for each other by the Supreme. Through the action of their thought on each other such marriage results in an ever-perfecting health and strength, entire freedom from disease, growing elasticity of limbs and muscle, perpetuation of youth, increasing mental power, increasing capacity to enjoy every phase of life, and the gradual and healthy growth of those powers outside the domain of physical sense. Neither man nor woman can accomplish these results alone. Nor can they be accomplished save by the two destined for each other from the beginning, and the grand support and uplifting power of these two will be a constant demand of the Supreme for power and light These possibilities will be realized in the future of the race, as we grow from the present cruder to finer states of being. The feminine thought has the peculiar quality and capacity of sensing or feeling more keenly than man, what exists in the world of spiritual things. Man's thought has the most power to act in the world of physical things. In the real and divine marriage the man acknowl- edges this power of woman, defers to it and is glad to profit by it. Man's body is formed in accordance with the peculiar character of the masculine thought, being coarser in fibre and physically better adapted than woman's to lift, tug and carry. woman's real power. 3 He is more aggressive, and the Supreme Power has given him an inherent liking to cope and con- tend with the elements. The physical woman is finer in fibre than man, because she receives and transmits to man a spirit- ual power of thought finer and more powerful than he can receive without her. This feminine force moulds her physical body in accordance with its inherent character. The physical world and the spiritual or unseen world are as closely linked together as is the tree and its roots. What we see, hear and touch in the world of physical things, is much the smaller part of the world in which we really live. Everything tangible to our physical sense on this Earth had its origin and commencement in the world of spirit. Not an event occurs in the physical world — not a war— not a discovery or invention — ^not a progressive move- ment but that is first wrought out in that world which to us is unseen and intangible — the world of spirit. The events of the physical world are as the shadows on the curtain, illuminated from behind. The spiritual world represents the real actors behind that curtain. The physical world is anala- gous to the shadows thrown on that curtain by the persons behind it. The feminine thought element has the most power to penetrate this unseen world and sense rather than see what is going on there. This peculiar feminine power and quality of thought as imperfectly known and recognized by Thought U FoTC«. 4 WOMAll'S REAL POWER. our race goes by the name of " intuition.'' It has h^en spoken of as the inward teaching or knowl- edge of events beyond reach of tlie physical senses coming from within. But such knowledge comes from without. The feminine thought ranges and reaches out. It traverses distances ; material solid- ity is no obstacle to it. It senses an event by means and power not capable of explanation. It feels the acts or motive oi* character of persons. It feels a coming good or a coming ill. It brings its apprehension of things for good or ill back to the domain of its physical senses. Its power for reach- ing out and into the realm of the unseen or spirit- ual side of life is a power as literal as that by which you lift a heavy weight, and this power of woman's mind is stronger than with man. The masculine thought has similar powers, but lesser in degree. Let us repeat that all things good or evil are acted out in the world of spirit before being acted out in the physical world. A man who steals or lies or murders does so in mind long before he com- mits the physical act. He " has it in his heart," to use a common expression. Woman's mind seeing farther and clearer than man's into the spiritual life, sees or rather feels such tendencies in that man very (juickly when brought into external contact with him. Her impressions are unfavorable regard- ing him. These impressions are not based on what we call " reason." " Do you know anything of that man f Have you any evidence that he is a bad jnan 1 " inay be asked of her. " No." She has Thought i& ToKQe, WOMAiJ'ii HEAL POWBE. 5 not. Simply she does not like bim. Mentally be gives ber a disagreeable sensation. Man is prone to call this " the woman's whim.'' It is the natural belonging of the feminine mind so to see clearer than man, exactly as in physical eyesight one person may see clearly at a much greater distance than another. What we call " reason,'' or '* common sense " is based entirely on cause and result as we think we see cause and result worked out in tire physical world. But when we enter the spiritual world, we meet an entirely new system of cause and result underlying the physical, and the feminine thought has more perception in this world than has man's. Women are more inclined to religious devotion than man in all denominations, because their farther sensing thought feels vaguely that great truths and realties do underlie all forms of religion, although their truths are often distorted, perverted and mis- represented. Women bear trouble with more equanimity than men, because of their greater capacity to draw a strength from the Supreme Power. Man in trouble is more prone to make a woman his confidant and unload his burthen on her. It is this same spiritual power which makes her the best nurse in sickness. In the Infinite Mind the masculine and feminine element is equally blended. Tlie Supreme Power is not all masculine nor all feminine. Our whole religious system is to-day based on a masculine Deity as the exclusive ruling force in the Universe, and women are taught directly and in- Thought la FoTOQ« 6 WOMAN'S REAL POWER. directly to look up to such a God and humble themselves before it, when theirs the feminine prin- ciple is the other and equal half of the Supreme Power. Man, ages ago, inferring from his gieater physi- cal strength, and unconscious that for such strength he was largely dependent on the spiritual force given him by the feminine mind, made Deity exclu- sively masculine. He inferred that because the masculine element asserted the most physical power, the mascuhne must be the leading and creative force in Nature. He inferred that man drew all his strength out of himself, and that beyond giving him birth, the feminine element had nothing to do with the perpetuation of either the strength of his body or the clearness and power of his mind. Hence man has styled himself " Lord of Crea- tion," as if in " creation ^ the feminine element was not as indispensable as his own. He has largely arrogated to himself governmental powers as ruler and legislator. He has interpreted, expounded and judged entirely through his masculine eye, and has derided the idea that a balanced judgment and a rightftil interpretation could never be found until the feminine mind was called in as the indispensa- ble factor in finding the happiest way of life. But the current of feminine thought flowing ever toward him, is a vital part of his daily life. It is not seen, nor heard, nor felt in the physical sense, yet it is as necessary to his life and health as is the presence of the feminine element in vegetation to insure healthy productiveness, and this in the veget- Thought is Force. woman's beal power. 7 able kiDgdom is as much a spiritual power as iu our race. The spiritual force of the feminine is the other half of the moving force in all Nature. This force is blended and indispensable in all things and in all movements, civil, religious, politi- cal and commercial. The force and effect of woman's thought is not now, nor was it ever stamped out by masculine assumption. Man succeeds only in checking it on the plane of physical activities. This is not check- ing it at all. No man can tell of the direction which may be given his thought, or how he may be influ- enced by the half hour passed in conversation with a woman. He may absorb from her a thought not spoken at all, and that thought may alter the des- tiny of his whole life for good or ill. If the woman cannot be President, she may influence the President's mind, though both may be unconscious of the action and result of these spiritual forces on each other. Designing, crafty woman in courts and senates, have set floods of mischief afloat through their silent force of thought. Prance has been ruled by kings' mistresses more than she ever was by her kings. So much for woman's power for evil when she has not demanded of the Supreme for wisdom in the use and direction of her thought or force. Every woman who in her hours of solitude dep- recates in human affairs what she cannot prevent, who regrets the folly and waste of war, who turns Thought is FoicQ. 8 trOMAN^S REAL POWBfi. yearningly to some more gentle and loving manage- ment of affairs, wbo wishes that man's turbulent and headstrong spirit could be swayed by softer im- pulses, is putting out that strong unseen subtle force which is working quietly its result. And such current of thought coming from her as she has drawn it from the Supreme, meets that of other feminine minds thinking as she does, and so meet- ing goes on ever increasing in volume and power. This is unconscious " prayer without ceasing.'' It is the spiritual element which is refining the world. It is not physically seen or heard. But it is felt. It is a literal power, but it works outside the domain of physical cause and result. It is the Supreme Power working for good through the finer feminine instrument, and working first through her in this way as it always has and always will work first. If the feminine mind and sympathy were with- drawn from every man in any great city — if we should assume for sake of illustration that the whole feminine mind in that city should be placed exclu- sively on business, and man by them was regarded as if he did not exist, there would within a few years be a very inferior race of men physically and mentally in that city. Because in such case a spir- itual force would be withdrawn, which gives men strength and vigor. That force is as necessary to the man in his ma- turer years as the sustenance which the mother gave him when an infant. The sustenance given by the mother to the infant is a physical means for carry- ing her love to the child. The greater her love so Thought is Force, WOMAN^S REAL POWER. % carried the more vigorous will be the child. For real love — ^love in its highest sense is a life and force to give and perpetuate health and strength far greater than bread and meat. The feminine thought element is as necessary to man in his maturer years as it is in infancy. Man does not realize this. He absorbs it unconsciously. Men who in their households or places of busi- ness are much in the atmosphere of women, draw from them a spiritual force, which gives them life, energy and capacity for business. Women give it unconsciously, and men receive it unconsciously. Woman will grow more and more alive to the pos- session and use of her peculiar power. She cannot prevent this power from acting through her no more than ^e can prevent ourselves from thinking. But she can, when demanding guidance of the Supreme, direct its use and flow so that there shall result the highest happiness to herself. Now as she gives this force to man, it is often used by him without recognition or appreciation and wasted. When we recognize a truth, and it forms part of our daily thought, its work as an unseen force act- ing on us and others has begun, and from that time that work goes on increasing and expanding in vol- ume. The truth then growing on the feminine mind that God, the Endless and Eternal Creative Force, is a blending of the two cieative forces, the mascu- line and feminine, that this blending extends to all nature, that her peculiar power is to see spiritually farther than man, and tliat in so doing she brings a Thought is Force. 10 woman's rbal power. power to man, indispensable to him — ^all this an unseen element flowing to and acting on the mascu- line mind, not in hostility and anger, but as a gentle and loving demand for justice will change his mental attitude toward woman without his scarcely know- ing it. When a few women realize that feminine love and sympathy keeps men literally alive, gives them health and strength, furnishes them with impetus, energy and plan for business, they will have set in motion a noiseless force, wbich will change the whole masculine life. It will make men see that woman is a real partner in the business and pleasure of life, and not a partner to be used when convenience requires, and ignored at other times. But this change is not to come with noise or sen- sation or be heralded by champions on the platform or attended with argumentation against man's past attitude toward woman. The Force of the Infinite comes to human hearts " like a thief in the night." The Infinite does not " vanquish ''' error as the armed gladiator does his opponent. It changes opinion almost impercepti- bly. It sends a force gentle in its action but impos- sible for the more material element to resist. It is as the Sun melting the glacier. Would the chemist refuse to use some element hitherto rejected and despised, when he found that its use and blending with other material produced we will say a metal more perfect in temper, elasticity and strength, more brilliant in color, and better adapted for a thousand uses, than any before known f No Thonght ig Foxoe. woman's beal poweb. 11 more will the masculiDe mind refuse the help and strength to mind and body which it will receive when it recognizes the feminine force of woman's peculiar spiritual power as indispensable to the com- ing, greater, broader and happier life. It is not here to be inferred that the impressions or spiritual far seeing of every woman are of a high order, or to be taken by man as his guide to the highest success. Unless woman demands wisdom of the Supreme Power, she will receive thought and impression from a lower source, and going astray will lead man with her as now she does in number- less cases. But as the feminine mind, or other half of the masculine has the greater power to sense the things of the spirit, so it follows that when that mind is placed on the Supreme, it draws knowledge and power from the Supreme more readily than man's, and when man sees this, as in time he will, he will be very glad to receive from her what the Infinite has given her a peculiar power to get. There is for him no more inferiority involved in his dependence on her for this spiritual strength than is the hand inferior to the eye. Both have their uses. Both are glad of the aid each can render to the other. Neither can usuip the other's function. In the endeavor to state this truth man is not condemned nor censured for his ignorance of a law, no more than is the child who comes to school to learn reading and writing, blamed for not knowing the alphabet. The wisest angel is as ignorant to-day as the unlettered child, of things to be Thought U Foxc«« 12 woman's real poweb. kuowu in the future. Revelation never stops. This feminine foresight as it comes more and more into play will bring into the world, balanced wisdom. Balanced wisdom comes of harmony be- tween things material and things spiritual. The masculine mind represents the physical world, the feminine the spiritual. This feminine spiritual force is the balance to man's material aggressiveness, which still hold such sway. In all eflforts to-day the tendency in man is to draw too heavily on his forces. In science, in politics, in business, in art, he works until he drops from exhaustion. He becomes absorbed and sucked in the thought cur- rent of some peculiar avocation. He is often heed- less of woman's oft-repeated admonition to rest and recuperate. And at last he loses the ability to rest and recuperate. The physical end is then not far oft. As man is dependent on woman to give him of her peculiar spiritual force, so is woman equally de- pendent on man for a certain masculine force derived from him. Woman cannot exist without sending this force to man. Her love and sympathy demand something of the other element on which they may be placed If her mind is not centred on an individual it will be on a masculine ideal. As woman has a superior power in one direction, man has in another. In the more perfect blending of the masculine and feminine minds, there is no such thing as one having the entire control, leader- ship, or government of the other. It is a combina- tion of woman's spiritual far-sightedness and man's Thought is Foxce« WOMAN^S REAL POWER. 13 Strength for working out the result of her superior vision. The peculiar power of one sex is as neces- sary to the other as in the telegraph the wire is necessary as a conductor of electricity. Without the wire no intelligence could be conveyed ; without the electric fluid, the wire for that purpose would be of no avail. Spiritually the sexes are in an analagous relation. Woman draws a force or spirit from the higher domain of thought. Man, as the wire, can best carry and use it on the more material planes of existence. When in this way in the future, men and women recognize their peculiar spiritual pow- ers and their proper relation and use to each other, far greater results for happiness will be realized. To-day the tendency is still very strong for the masculine element to assert an entire independence of the feminine in all governmental and controlling movements. Women's peculiar judgment and intui- tion is still held in contempt, although that contempt is gradually diminishing. Women themselves in many cases, absorbing from man and each other this thought of their inferiority, esteem themselves as in- ferior, and strengthen man in his inferior estimate of them. Whoever believes themselves inferior will for a time be inferior. But this condition of tbings cannot last. It cannot last, because the idea is founded in error. Every woman, be she silly and trifling as she may, carries in her spirit the divine germ of her superior intuition or power of seeing truth in the Supreme Mind sooner than man. Her present vision may be imperfect and distorted. Her pres- ent judgment in any direction may be of no value, Thonsht is Foxo^r 14 WOMAN'S BEAL POWBB. but the germ is there. It may be but the faintest spark from the Supreme Light. It cannot be extin- guished. Nor can it lessen. It may be covered and buried under the ashes of lower and material thought. But the sacred fire and qualities of truth is in duration eternal, and is ever attract! ug more of the divine fire to itself. It will shine more and more brightly. It burns away and purges itself of the dross which temporarily cover* it. Thought ii Foco^ LOVE THYSELF. Copyright 1891, btF. J. NmtnHiif. Christ's precepts say: '^Lore thy neighbor as thyself.'' Some people incline to forget the two last words " as thyself and infer that we should love others even better than ourselves. So far has this idea been carried that it has led in cases to en- tire sacrifice and neglect of self so that good may be done to others. There is a justifiable and righteous love for self. There can be no true spiritual growth without this higher love for self. Spiritual growth implies the cultivation and increase, of every power and talent. It means the making of the symmetrically developed man and woman. Spiritual growth fostered by unceasing Demand of the Supreme Power will bring power to keep the body in perfect health to escape pain and disease — and will eventually carry man above the present limited conditions of mortality. The higher love of self benefits others as well as ourselves. When we love a person, we send that person our quality of thought. If it is the aspiring order of thought it is for that person a literal element and if0W Thoughts Brlns^ 14itti 2 LOVE THYSELF. agency of life and health in proportion to his or her capacitj' for absorbing and assimilating it. If we think meanly of ourselves — if we are beggarly in spirit — and are content to live on the bounty of others, if we care little for our personal appearance —if we are willing to get money by questionable means — it we believe there is no Supreme and over- ruling Power, governing our lives by an exact law, but that everything is left to chance, and that life is only a scramble for existence, we send in thought such beliefs to that person, and if our love is accepted it is only a means to drag d«iwn instead of a power to elevate. How can we send the highest love to another if we do not have it for ourselves f If we are careless and unappreciative of the body's great use to us — if we never give it a thought of admiration or grati- tude for the many functions it performs for us — if we regard it with the same indifference that we may have for the post to which we hitch a horse, we shall send that same quality of sentiment and thought to the person we think most of, and the tendency of such thought on them will be to gene- rate a similar disregard for themselves. Either they will do this, or seeking light of the Infinite, they will find themselves obliged vn self- protection to refuse the love we send them, because of its coarser and grosser quality. This is sometimes the error of mothers, who say: "I don't care for myself so that my son or daugh- ter's welfare is assured. I give and devote my whole life to them." New Thou^hU Brinf^ XAle, LOVE THYSELF. 3 This means, " I am coDtent to grow old and unat- tractive. I am content to slave and drudge so that my children may receive a good education and shine in society. I am an old and decaying weatlier-beaten hulk and can't hold together much longer, and the best use I can make of myself is to serve as a sort of fout-bridge for them in the shape of nurse, grandmother,and overseer of the nursery and kitchen, while they are playing their parts in society.'' The daughter receives this thought with the mother's inferior self-neglecting love. She absorbs and it assimilates it. It becomes part of her being. She lives it, acts it out, and thirty years afterward is saying and doing the same and laying heiselt upon the shelf with the rest of the cracked teapots for her daughter's sake. Ancestral traits of character as bequeathed and transmitted from parent to child are the thoughts of the parent absorbed by the child. When in thought, desire and aspiration we make the most of what the Infinite has given us (inclu- sive of these wonderful bodies), we shall have con- tinual increase, and such increase will overflow of it own accord and benefit others. The highest love for self means justice to self. If we are unjust to ourselves we shall be unavoidably unjust to those to whom we are of the greatest value. A general who should deprive himself of necessary food and give all his bread and meat to a hungry soldier, might in so doing weaken his body, and with his body weaken his mental faculties, lessen his capacity for command, thereby increasing New Thoughts Bring IAi«. 4 LOVE THYSELF. the chances for the destruction of bis entire army. What is most necessary to know and what the Infinite will show us as we demand, is the value we are to others. In proportion to our power for in- creasing human happiness, and in proportion as we recognize that power will the needful agencies come to us for making our material condition more comfortable. No man or woman can do their best work for themselves or others who lives in a hovel, dresses meanly and starves the spirit by depriving it of the gratification of its finer tastes. They will always carry the atmosphere and influence of the hovel with them, and that is brutalizing and degrading. If the Infinite worked on such a basis would the Heavens show the splendor of the Suns f Would the fields reflect that glory in the myriad hues of leaf and flower, in plumage of bird and hue of rain- bow! What in many cases prevents the exercise of this higher love and justice to self is the thought, "What will others say, and how will others judge me if I give myself what I owe to myself f' That is, you must not ride in your carriage until every needy relative has a carriage also. The general must not nourish his body properly because the hungry sol- dier might say that he was rioting in excess. When we appeal to the Supreme and our life is governed by a principle, we are not governed either by fear of public opinion or love of other's approbation, and we may be sure that the Supreme will sustain us. If in any way we try to live to suit others we never N^w Thoughts Bring ZJdm. LOVE THYSELF. 6 shall suit them, and the more we try the more un- reasonable and exacting do they become. The government of your life is a matter which lies en- tirely between God and yourself, and when your life is swayed and influenced from any other source you are on the wrong path. Very few people really love themselves. Yery few really love their own bodies with the higher love. That higher love puts ever-increasing life in the body and ever-increasing capacity to enjoy life. Some place all their love on the apparel they put on their bodies ; some on the food they put in their bodies ; some on the use or pleasure they can get from their bodies. That is not real love for self which gluts and gor- mandizes with food or which keeps the body con- tinually under the influence of stimulants. It is not a real love for self which indulges to excess in any pleasure to be gotten from the body. The man who racks and strains his body and mind in the headlong pursuit of pleasure or business, loves tliat business or art unwisely. He has no regard for the instrument (the body) on which he is dependent for the materialization of his ideas. This is like the mechanic who should allow a costly tool by which he is enabled to do rare and elaborate work '*'/0 rust or be otherwise injured through neg- lect. That is not the highest love for self which puts on its best and cleanest apparel when it goes out to visit or promenade and wears ragged or soiled clothes indoors. That is love of the opinion or Sew Thoughts Brin^ IM^, 6 LOVE THYSELF. approbation of others. Such a person only dresses physically. There is a spiritual dressing of the body when the mind in which apparel is put on is felt by others. Whoever has it in any degree will evidence it in a certain style of carrying their clothes which no tailor can give. The miser does not love himself. He loves money better than self. To live with a half-starved body, to deny self of every luxury, to get along with the poorest and cheapest things, to deprive self of amusement and recreation in order to lay up money, is surely no love for the whole self. Tlie miser's love is all in his money bags, and his body soon shows how little love is put in it. Love is an element as literal as air or water. It has many grades of quality with different people. Like gold, it may be mixed with grosser element. The highest and purest love comes to him or her who is most in communion and oneness with the Infinite Mind and ever demanding of the Infinite Mind for more and more of its wisdom. The regard and thought of such a person is of great value to any one on whom it is directed. And that person will of that wisdom be wisely economical of their sympa- thy for others and put a great deal of this higher love into themselves in order to make the most of themselves. Some people infer from their religious teachings that the body and its functions are inherently vile, and depraved; that it is a clog and an incum- brance to any -higher and more divine life ; that it is corruptible " food for worms,'' destined to return to New Thoughts Bring Uf«, LOVE THYSELF. 7 dust and moulder in the eartb. It has been held that the body should be " mortified, that the flesh should be crucified and starved and subjected to rigorous penance and pains for its evil tendencies. Even youth with its freshness, beauty, vigor and vivacity has been held as almost a sin, or as a con- dition especially prone to sin. When a pei*son in any way mortifies and crucifies the body either by starving it or dressing meanly, or living in bare and gloomy surroundings, they generate and literally put in the body the thought of hatred for itself. Hatred of others or of self is a slow thought-poison. A hated body can never be symmetrical or healthy. The body is not to be re- fined and purged of the lower and animal tendencies by being made responsible and continually blamed for these sins — ^by being counted as a clod and an incumbrance, which it is fortunate at last to shake oft. Religion so called has in the past made a scapegoat of the body, accused it of every sin, and in so doing and thinking filled it with sin. As one result of this the professors of such religion have suftered pain and sickness. Their bodies have de- cayed and dt ath has often been preceded by long and painful illness. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The fruits of such a faith and condition of mind prove error in it. There is a mind of the body — a carnal or material mind — a mind belonging to the instrument used by the spirit. It is a mind or thought lower or cruder than that of the spirit. New Thoughta Bria^ 'LA&b* 8 LOVE THYSELF. But this mind of the body need not, as has been held, be ever at war with the higber mind of the spirit. It can through demand of the Infinite be made in time to act in perfect accord with the spirit. The Supreme Power can and will send us a supreme love for the body. That love we need to have. Not to love one's body is not to love one expression of the Infinite Mind. We are not inferring that you '* ought '' to have more love for your body, or that you " ought " in any respect to do or act differently from your deeds, acts and thoughts as they are at present. "Ought ^ is a word and idea regarding others that we have nothing to do with. There is no reason in saying to a blind man "you ought to see.*' There is no more reason in saying to anyone " you ought not to have this or that defect of character." Whatever our mental condition may be at present, we must act out. A man cannot of his individual self put an atom more of the element of love in himself than he now has. Only the Infinite Mind can do that. What- ever of error in character and belief we have to-day, we shall act out to-day in thought or deed. But we need not always have that mind. The Overruling Mind will as we demand give us new minds, new truths, new beliefs, and as these supplant and drive out old errors there will come corresponding changes for the better, in both mind and body. And these ever improving changes have no end. There is to these changes but one gate and one road. That gate and road lies in an unceasing I^ew Tbon^hta Brin^ Uf e. LOVE THYSELF. 9 demand of the Infinite to perfect us in its way. " There is a natural body, and tliere is a spiritual body." In other words, we have a body of physical element which can be seen and felt, and we have another body (the spiritual), intangible to our phys- ical senses. When we are able to love, cherish and admire our physical body as one piece of God's handiwork, we are putting thatliigher love element not only into that physical body, but also into the spiritual body. We cannot of ourselves make this quality of love. It can come to us only through demand of the Infinite. It is not vanity or that lower pride which values more whatever effect its own grace and beauty may have on others than it values that grace and beauty. The higher love for the body will attend as carefully to its external adornment in the solitude of the forest as it would in the crowded city. It will no more debase itself by any vulgar act in privacy than it would before a multitude. If God gives one personal beauty and symmetry in physical proportions, should not he or she thus favored with a gift from the Supreme, admire it ! Is it vanity to love and admire and seek to improve and increase any talent we may find in ourselves ! If God made man and woman "in His own image,'' is it an image to be loved and admired, or regarded with hatred and distrust! Why the religious be- lief of less than a hundred years ago has actually courted ugliness, and inferred that it was more credit- able than beauty. Had some of those solemn visaged professors been delegated to make an angel New Thou^lita Bxinj^ Loi^* 10 LOVE THYSELF. after their own ideal, tliey would have turned out a duplicate of themselves. The Infinite as we d(»maii(l will give us wisdom and light to know what we owe to ourselves. People have been over-ridpyrighted 1891, by F. J. Needham. Beauty of face and beauty of form from head to foot is the rigbt of every human being. Every face like every flower that blooms should please its own and others' eyes and in the future every face will so please. Beauty is a gift most generously bestowed in nature's myriad expressions, from the form of every leaf or bird's feather, or falling flake of snow which close inspection shows to be crystallized into countless forms of fascinating symmetry and pro- portion. It is worth repeating over and over again that your health, your fortunes, your success in any undertaking depends entirely on your predominant- mental condition or frame of mind. If that con- tinual frame of mind is hopeful, buoyant, courageous, always looking on the bright side and toward suc- cess, never desponding, or if so inclined, fighting off" despondency, then you are certain of ultimate suc- cess, for then you are sending out the force which attracts success. Sympathy ia Poxc%. 2 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. The more you cultivate aud live in this frame of mind, the stronger will your faith become in these silent and hitherto almost unrecognized thought forces, which will bring you health, peace, happiness and success, for as this silent power with you in- creases, as inciease it must when held to, you will receive more and more proofs and ever stronger proofs of what it can do for you. But certain conditions must be observed to keep in this the successful mood of mind, which is the strongest force — indeed the only force for drawing to you all of tlie best this earth can give and that without much other effort save what is pleasing in the exercise of your business, art or profession. For when you hold persistently to the successful mental state, you become a magnet drawing ever people to aid you as you in return can aid them. But if you are much of the time despondent and gloomy, you become the negative magnet driving the best from you, and attracting the worst. You will then, if aided at all, be aided only as an " object of charity," which is really no aid at all, for if you can- not be useful or valuable to others, you are, (be your station or rank in society where it may), only endured — not needed. The greatest obstacle towards the realization of your continual serene, cool, deliberate self-com- posed and peaceful frame of mind (which is the mood and source of power), lies in promiscuous and ..flwise association with all manner of people whose thought is on a lower level than your own. If you associate ever so little with the frivolous, the aim- SympaUiy U Foxo«* GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. 3 less, the cynical, the. grumbling, the despondent with those who have no faith in these spiritual laws, which underlie and are the only moving powei*s for aflfecting all material results, you will absoib some inferior thought and this will shackle, weigh down and cripple your power and injure your health. If you go into families, where there is a despondency or cynicism or peevishness, a belief only in things material be they ever so friendly with you, you come out shorn of some of your power, especially if you are moved to give them sympathy. Every thought of sympathy represents so much force taken from you and no force of yours demands more discretion in its outlay. Having a defined purpose in view, the atmosphere of thought you carry with you in your dealings with others is a power stronger to aid you than yoar spoken words. Because all so coming in contact with you will feel this atmosphere. It you have confidence in your ability, if you are honest to the core, they mWfeel that confidence and honesty after you leave them, and as you persist in your purpose they will feel it more and more, for that power is always acting on them. But if even though having all this confidence and abiUty, you are in association with the dishonest, aimless, skeptical, desponding or dependent order of mind, you will absorb of these qualities of thought. You must then carry more or less of this atmosphere with you. Then those with whom you deal feel it and the impression you make and leave on them is less favorable to your interests. Sympathy ia Fox^;^ 4 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. You can make an atmosphere a power of thought to carry with you as literally as you can build a house or make any material thing, and such atmosr phere or power can be made only through associa- tion with mind on the same level as your own. If you cannot find such mind here embodied, you will make it in seclusion whereby you give mind in purpose and motive like your own opportunity to have access to you and generate the same power. If you are always mixing and mingling with a large circle of acquaintances and you give to each one your sympathy, if your company is desirable and pleasant ; if you bring, on calling on them, a certain strength and exhilaration, you will as a result, when absent, and even at a distance from them, have their minds fixed on yours, and their thoughts ever flow- ing toward you and meeting and mingling with yours. If these friends live in the same world of thought as yourself — ^if their aims, purposes, aspir- ations are equal with yours — if they believe as you do, and try to live up to such belief — their flow of thought to you will be of great advantage. It will strengthen your mind and body. It will aid to prevent you from falling into the despondent or unsuccessful frame of mind. It will aid to keep you in the peaceful, cheerful, equable mood, which is the mood of success. It will aid to keep you in uninterrupted communication with the higher or Supreme Power or current of elevated and power- ful thought on which, when once you are fairly launched and committed, you will be carried onward to ever increasing happiness and success, as the cur- Sympathy Ib Foxc^. GOOD AOT) ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. 5 reDt of the Mississippi carries the shallop to the sea. But if the minds so fixed on yours are not on your mental level — if the thought so flowing to you from a distance is lower than your own — if these acquaint- ances like you for your company, but have little or no faith in what they may call your " peculiar ideas," or even if they like tor the time being to hear you talk concerning them, but their faith does not prove itself by their works, then if still you continue to cultivate them, their minds fixed on yours — their thought coming to you from distant places is a damage to you. It will mingle with and muddy your own. It will prevent you from seeing clearly and acting wisely in your undertakings. It will cut off your mental communication with higher and more powerful minds as well as from the higher and constructive thought current. It will inject into your mind unaccountable periods of depression, gloom and peevishness. It will color your ideas and plans for material advancement with the dark shade of discouragement. It will lessen your moral courage to assert yourself and stand up for your rights. It will bring you that immense waste of force which comes of indecision. It will make you cowardly before understrappers and pigmies. When you keep in such mental rapport with this class of mind, their moods become more or less your moods. You become them in part through such mental communication. You think their thoughts as they so came to you and thinking them, are the more disposed to act them, and if they are in any way on the down grade in health or fortune, 6 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. you will have a tendency also to go on the down grade in health and fortune. It has always been received as a truth, that it is our duty to give ear and sympathize with every un- fortunate or suffering person. This is a mistake. To many it has proved a fatal mistake. When you give of such sympathy, you give of your real force. Jf you give thus unwisely and receive nothing back of a quality of thought correspondent to your own, you will in time have nothing yourself to give. You will be weakened in spirit and if in spirit you must be in body. Some warm-hearted and sym- pathetic ministers who have thrown their whole souls into every movement made by their congre- gations, the Sunday School and the Charitable Society, who have visited the sick and condoled with the bereaved and conformed to the many demands made upon them, have found in time their own strength, energy and inspiration to fail. K a man like Beecher has the living truth in him, it is quite enough for him to stand up once a week and give of that truth. He has done a great service to thousands and he has done enough. For any such person every other sympathetic impulse and outflow of force or thought should be most carefully considered and guarded. He can have kindness for all, but when his thought rushes out in volumes of sympathy, now on this individual, then on that, he is in danger. If among a crowd of inferior people you submit tamely to some imposition, outrage or insult because yon are afraid to speak out before them, Sympathy U Poxce. GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. 7 then you are ruled by the inferior mind of that crowd. If you fear in filling occasions to speak your mind openly to any person, that person's mind dominates and rules yours, though such person may be greatly your inferior. If you are much with that person that mind will rule and influence yours, though your bodies may be far apait. You will then absorb and partake to an extent of that per- son's passions, appetites, prejudices, and even ail- ments, besides being ruled by them and thwarted in your aims. True, such persons may seem your friends. They may even believe they are your friends. But there are in the world thousands of unconscious tyrants and tyrannies in the name of friendship— people who call and believe themselves friends only so long as you do what they wish, only so long as you give them your society, and you allow them to drag you in their direction, who are sore if you do not call on them so often as they desire, or if you seek other association. Kyou tolerate and endure this tyranny — if they enjoy their way and you only endure their way, then you are not only their slave but you are being injured in body, mind and fortune through the absorbtion of the inferior thought element, you are continually receiving as you think of them. Through long mental habit you may feel abject, crushed and humble before that certain brutal, bull- dog, domineering, brow-beating order of mind which tries to bring every one in subjection to its will. Before them personally even your body may feel SympaUiy \& Toxc^. 8 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. weak. You hesitate in speech. Your tongue can- not obey the desire of your mind. So strong is the action of their will on your mind or spirit that it actually drives the better part of it away from your body and therefore it can not control or use your body. You can by degrees remedy this weakness and rise above them by asserting yourself when alone. Speak to them in mind when alone as you cannot now when in their presence. See yourself when alone as often as possible able to cope with them. You are then building yourself up into more and more courage. You are then getting rid of your cowardice and nothing fetters and prevents success more than moral cowardice. To get to and own this mental condition the gieatest aid is a total cutting from all cowardly as- sociation. To be intimate with cowardly mind is to absorb cowardly thought unless you are positive or on the defensive to repel it, and if you are, the continual strain supposing you are continually ex- posed to such thought will over-tax you in some way. There is but one way out of these mental tyran- nies and injuries. You must cut off all inferior as- sociations and occupy yourself in some way so as much as possible to forget them. You may say that such manner of life dooms you to perpetual solitude. You ask, " Must I cut off all association with mankind f Not at all. In so doing you are only preparing the way for assjciation with the best of your kind, who can bring you aid for all your undei'takings. Sympathy is Foxoe. GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OP THOUGHT. 9 and whose thought is worth absorbing, for its quality will strengthen you in every way. You will also through such temporary solitude build up a world of your own, in which for times and seasons you can happily live. You will, through cutting off the muddy currents of thought from inferior minds, see more and more in familiar things and find sources of enjoyment in things which before were uninteresting and barren. You will as so centred in yourself make yourself stronger and stronger as a magnetic power to draw to you what most you need to carry out your purposes. People who cannot live save with crowds — people who must have company, no matter what the com- pany are composed of — people who will gossip with their servants if there be none other to gossip with have little power, or if they possess power waste it in so doing. One real friend who sees with you " eye to eye and face to face ^ is worth all others in the world who meet you only in part. Such a friend is worth the waiting for years. Such a friend will come to you through the inevitable law of attraction if you desire him or her, providing you prepare the way as has here been indicated. Solitude so-called does not necessarily involve loss uf company. There is company for you everywhere and that of the best and finest, so that you cultivate the proper mental condition to receive it, feel it, enjoy it and communicate with it. There is also a Supreme Power, a Supreme Force or current of thought in the universe which as the mind or spirit grows in power it will finally be able to reach and 10 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. draw strength from for every trial or emergency. It is in the possibilities for this power to prevent the body from being injured through any physical or earthly cause. It was this Power as called down through silent mental prayer or desire whereby all the so-called miracles spoken of in the biblical records were accomplished. It is a Power unex- plainable and mysterious. It cannot be analyzed or accounted for by any of the methods of earthly science. We know simply that it exists and that it can cause results and tremendous results, when We through the observance of certain conditions place ourselves in its line of operation. It is as powerful now to work these results as it was thousands of years ago. No jot or tittle of any law or element has changed since that time. Sunshine and dark- ness, rain and snow, vegetable life and animal life, the winds and the tides were the same in their work- ings then as now, and so to-day are those deeper and less known forces of which some among those ancient peoples knew relatively a little, but of which we know next to nothing. These were at the basis of the "Lost Arts,'' and those "Lost Arts'' in- volved the accomplishment of results and so-called wonders wrought on higher or lower planes of motive through the knowledge and exercise of mental or spiritual laws. As we learn to fling ourselves back on this power in any emergency — to rely so much as we may upon it in time of sickness or trial — to try and rely solely upon it and not upon any earthly aid or our dearest and most powerful earthly friends, so shall Sympathy is Forc«. GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. IL we gradually grow nearer to it, and bring ourselves In closer and quicker communication with it. It can help us in the so-called little trials of life. Call upon it when you desire to sleep and cannot, when little physical ailments beset you, when low spirits depress you, when unaccountable fears paralyze your energy. When you have done your best in any eflfort, cease to rely at all further upon yourself. Stop trying to do of yourself. Become passive, and commit yourself to this the Supreme Power. Because in the words of the Apostle, " Of ouselves we can do nothing.'* With this Power we can do everything, when once fairly in its current. We are then, as some express it, " in the line of the Divine Mind.'' Once in this line and solitude and lone- liness no longer exists with us. We have then in ourselves and outside of ourselves, company every- where and peace everywhere. We are then also becoming more free from the desire of seeking promiscuous and injurious associa- tion which will enslave, fetter and injure us. We are on the road then to meet our true friends and real relations, who can benefit us in every way. Because when you can for periods stand alone and enjoy yourself through this communion with the Supreme Power or Divine Mind, your are not only strengthening both spirit and body, but making yourself more attractive and more useful to those whom you are to meet. You will appreciate and enjoy the more what they have for you. They also will be in communication and draw from the same Power. Unless they can they cau- Sympntkiy \ft Totc^. 12 GOOD AKD ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. not be your associates. If you so " walk with God,'' you can Lave pemianent association only with others who so walk. You and they are then in rappoii; with the Holy Spirit or *^ Holy Ghost," promised by the Christ of Judea. This is in no sense a " sentimental religious idea. For as you change the daily attitude or state of your mind you attract to you literal ele- ments in conformity with such state. If you have faith only in things material or what you can see, hear, touch or feel, you will attract only the weaker power coming of such material. What we so sense is but a fragment of the forces about us. If we do not rule tbese forces they will rule us to our injury. The means for such ruUng by us lie entirely in the attitude of our minds. If you have any special purpose or undertaking to accomplish, your motive being to benefit others as well as yourself, and having done your best in the matter you still find obstacles and annoyances in the way, cease doing anything save what is abso- lutely necessary. Desire earnestly that your mind cease to plan, fret or worry over the aflGair. Eely then on this mysterious power to remove the ob- stacles for you. It can and will do it, providing you place yourself in the proper conditions to give it access to you. The principal condition Ues in seclusion from all who are not in your world of thought. Live so much as you can alone, eat alone, sleep alone. You bring yourself then more and more in the current of the Supreme Power. Where }t 23 necessary to act to accomplish your aim you Hympatby is Force. GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. liS will then carry this power with you. You will be surprised at what it will silently accomplish. Un- expected naeans and agencies will open to you. Where you expected opposition you will find favor. Kegarding your aim, remember this power is always at work pushing for you, when you hold to your pur- pose and are not vacillating or mingling with lower association. Do not recede from the position you have assumed. If you do, so much of its past force in so working for you is wasted. But if you go gadding about ; if you must drop in to see this or that friend, simply for sake of com- pany or gossip ; if you must call on this or that family simply to pass away the time, or have about you some special associate who has no faith or a weak and uncertain faith in these truths, you will cut the line connecting you with the Supreme Power. You will connect yourself with the inferior thought current and inferior power. You will not accomplish a tithe of what you would from taking the other course. You descend then to the ma- terial stratum of thought, motive and action. On that stratum the forces are too strong for you. When you are on the higher plane, they are power- less. It is a fearful mistake for men or women to in^ dulge in promiscuous and intimate associations for mere gratification. Nothing so much fetters the superior mind of the two. It adulterates and infects it with inferior and baser thought, cuts it off from higher spiritual sources of supply, cripples energy and courage and fills the body with weakness and Sympathy ia Fonto*. 14 GOOD AND ILL EFFECTS OF THOUGHT. disease, generally attributed to other causes. The same results follow those uuions called " marriages," which are based on material considera- tions or fancies which in so short a time prove delu- sions. In either case they tend toward those men- tal tyrannies by which the more sensitive, finer and really the most powerful mind of the two becomes blinded to its power, enslaved and ruled by the in- ferior and, if a giant is blind, is he not at the mercy of any weakling who leads him f Being in thorough communication with this, the Supreme Power which is the Power of Truth, and you are a king or queen in the empire of mind. " The truth shall make us free.'' You can then no longer come under control of any mental tyranny. Bjmptifhj ii Foro«. BURIED TALENTS. Ck>p7riglited 1891, by F. J. Nkkdham. A girl has a distaste for " housework,'' if she has no aptitude for washing, scouring, cooking and sweeping, if she does not evidence the ordinary signs and proclivities for filling the position, the world accords to so many girls that of the " good housekeeper;" let her alone. Be sure that some power within her jieeds time and rest to grow. You do not make matters any better by forcing her to occupations for which she has no inclination. You are probably making matters much worse. You are developing an indifferent "house-wife," and starving possibly the soul of a woman of great ability, in some direction. Bank heresy ! Nonsense ! you cry. " Every girl should be taught to bake, brew, boil, sweep, scrub and how to " keep house." She should not be brought up in idleness. Very good, drive your idle child to work, vex her soul with pots and pans. Ten or fifteen years hence, look upon her and see if she is an honor to your strict training. Many are the broken down creatures to-day who might have " amounted to something," had the talent or talents given them Power and TaUat Orxow \a.^«9km%* 2 BtJRlED TALENTS. have been allowed time and rest in which to grow, and be recognized and fostered when they put forth their first buds of promise. You cannot drive a quality, a power, a talent in upon itself, without risk of dreadful results. Would you attemyt to hammer back the apple bud and insist that it be a pear blossom f That is the rule of the world in thousands of cases. The bud of the youthful artist is discouraged, the rising genius repressed perhaps by the parent. Why ! " Oh artists are such a poor lot. They do not, save in exceptional cases, make money .'^ True. And for such reason it is sometimes the parents that takes the child's talent and buries it for him, or her. Power and talent grow in repose. The solution of mineral producing the finest crystallization needs to be kept perfectly quiet while the new combi- nation is forming. The best fruitage of mind whether of invention, art, science or sentiment, must form under similar conditions. Your " origi- nal thinker" develops best while he is apparently idle. " Industry " in what is called " literary work,'' often makes " hacks" of race horses. . Every man and every woman contain in themselves the elements and powers in embryo of entire self reliance. Every individual should so base himself in his mind. You should say continually to yourself, " though I have not the power to carry out my design to-day, still I am ever growing up to that power. If I lean or de- pend for help to-day, still it is my aspiration to be independent of such dependency as soon as pos- sible." Power and Talent Qtxom in 'ELspoatt. BUIOED 1?ALENTS. 3 Dependency on somebody or something is one of the unconscious errors in thought most preva- lent to-day. Theology has taught that we are " nothing without God." So we are. But God or the Infinite Spirit of good and power is everywhere, and we have the glorious and, as yet, unappreciated power of ever calling to us and adding eternally to ourselves more and more of this spirit or element. God or the Infinite Spirit of good " works in us and through us." We are all parts of God and each individual as such part is ever glorifying God by gaining more and more Godliness. That is, more and more power for doing. We must hold the thought in our minds that we have more of this power to-day than we had yesterday. We must cut loose more and more from the idea of a depend- ency on any one or any power, save the power we can ever call to ourselves. Every individual is an empire ever increasing in j)ower. "But are we not dependent on others in every phase of life f " may be asked. " How should we live did not others prepare our food, build our houses, wash our clothing, and minister to our many needs f " We answer, it is a law of nature that theA more we wisely try to help ourselves, the more do we help others, and thereby get help from them. y Wisdom makes effort to gain perfect health and a balanced mind. The mere possession of these alone is a benefit to all with whom we come in contact and many more. If your spirit is powerful and healthy it will send its invigorating forces to people far from you. A spirit which has reached the consciousness Power and Talenl Oyctvt Sxk.'GLs^%%« 4 BURIED TALENTS. that it is through prayer or the laws of demand ever calling to itself new forces from the exbaustless source of force, and never losing an atom of that force, so called to it, is a benefit to thousands it may never see with the physical eye. It is sending of its force to every person of whom it thinks. It is as a sun warming into life all on which it shines, even as our sun begets life out of the rugged rock on which its rays fall. As you increase in patience, in exactness, in decision, in method, in neatness, in self-control, in all that ^oes to make of yourself a relatively perfect organized being, do these qualities flow from you to others, and as they increase in these will they flow back from those they benefit to you. If you send this quality of thought to them from the impulse of love or desire to help, so will they respond in time and send the same quality back to you through the re- sistless impulse of love and gratitude. You cannot help others without being helped yourself. You cannot send out helpful thought to others without getting from them in return helpful thought so far as they have ability to give it. You cannot injure others without being injured yourself. You can- not send any shade of evil thought to others with- out injury to yourself. If those to whom you send such character of evil thought meet it and turn it aside by the thought of goodwill to you, your thought will return to you. Self dependence brings to you the very result unwisely sought by depend- ence. The person who leans on you and depends on you for everything must tire you out at last. Power and Talent Qtrow \xi'GL«^Q»%« BURIED TALENTS. 5 You will see eventually how great an injustice it is f to allow any person so to depend. It cripples ^ their own capacity for independence. It retards the strengthening of that power through exercise by which they could call to themselves more of any quality out of the elements, or, in other words, out of the boundless realm of Infinite Spirit or Force. You are offering yourself as a crutch to a person who has sound hmbs. To encourage dependency in another is to strengthen their delusion in their own weakness. It is teaching them to be everlast- ing borrowers when they have a bank of their own. It is often as the lending to them of means which they cannot wholly appropriate or use to best ad- vantage while others might be greatly benefited by such means and repay you a far better interest. It is right to expect return for what we give. It is right because it is a necessity. If you are ever giv- ing another of the richness of your superior thought ; if you are always planning and working for the entertainment and pleasure of some person who takes all you give and has for you little or no power to entertain you in return, you are injuring yourself and that other person. You are giving your bread and getting stones in return. You are teaching and encouraging that person to give only stones. You are encouraging a life of selfishness and stu- pidity. You are preventing another sun from shining, another God or Goddess from maturing. You may Hke wise through over-much ^bsorbtion of that person's inferior thought being weighed down by it, crippled by it, and oppressed by an inertia or Power and Taleul Qticorw \xk 13l«^'aUiv ia Poxo«, 6 CONFESSION. totally unable to say to auyone that it has any fault. At last it becomes totally blind to all defects ot its own. It holds often unconsciously to the idea that it is perfection. It becomes supercilious, domineering, and ever deaUng out judgment on others. It is fossilized in its own material belief. The relief given by confession is working con- stantly in the every day life of men and women. We experience a sense of relief as if a burthen had been thrown oft when we tell our troubles to a sympathizing friend. Because on so talking them out to that friend the thought which did literally " weigh on the mind,'' is cast out. In giving you sympathy, the friend takes literally a part of your burthen. If you are the one so confessed to, you may afterward feel depressed and gloomy. Because you have absorbed the other's troubled thought, and it is acting on you. You are bearing the other's burthen. We need to be very careful how we take these burthens of others' troubles on ourselves. If we allow ourselves to become the recipients of many people's troubles we shall eventually be borne down by the accumulation of their troubled mental con- ditions on our minds. We shall carry their depres- sions, their gloom, and even their physical sickness. We shall be swept into their troubled current of thought. The more people from whom we take these loads, the stronger will be that current. Your mind then is not your own. Your mind is at the mercy and is swayed and influenced by the depressed and unhealthy thought of those whose Sympathy ii Poxoe* CONFESSION. 7 moods you have allowed to be poured into you. You may from these causes act diflferently in your business, and act injuriously to your interests, because in absorbing promiscuously the thoughts of others you may absorb also their lack of judg- ment. Many are damaged in health and fortune from this cause. When you give your sympathy to another you give your force with it. You receive in return the thought and quality of the others^ mind. If their thought is inferior to yours — if their judgment is weak— if they are reckless, hasty and imprudent — if they lack energy — indeed, whatever may be their defects, you will absorb and for a time take on those defects. If you so take them on you will also act them out. When you give sympathy to another you graft that other person's mind on yours. You will not when daily demanding wisdom and guidance of the Infinite allow yourself to be con- fessed to by everyone or give your sympathy indis- criminately to those who ask it. Your sympathy is literally your life, your vitality, your vital force that keeps body and spirit together. The Supreme Wisdom will prompt you to put your hand up and restrain its flow to everyone that appeals for it. It will make It clear to you that in letting it go out to everyone whenever it is called for, you are drain- ing yourself of your very life. Confession has a far wider range than the telling our faults to another. All Nature confesses by out- ward signs its sensations of pleasure or pain. Theory of agony extorted by physical pain is a SympaUiY ^ "Fox^, 8 CONFESSION. oonfesBion of pain. It bad better be uttered tbao repressed. Its utterance does give a certain relief, a fact to wbich many pbysicians bave testified. Tbe exclamation of deligbt and tbe merry laugb is an external confession of receiving pleasure. Would not a great deal of bappiness be prevented were we not allowed to give way to such expres- sions. Tbey are necessary and vital to bealtb and happiness. A household where these joyous con- fessions are repressed — where master or mistress frowns or sneers at what be or she may call frivol- ous, is not a happy household nor even a healthy one. There is for us imperative need of an associate with whom we can be natural. We need at least one person with whom we can talk out and act out our moods — before whom we can take off our armor and not be continually on guard. We do not want to be always weighing our sentences so as to say the wisest and most correct thing. That is keeping the mental bow continually on a tension. It needs to be unstrung and often unstrung. We need at times the privilege and freedom of saying trivial things and possibly silly things without fear of being snubbed or criticised. We need privilege and fi-eedom to act out the playful spirit. If it is always repressed, the capacity for expressing it will eventually be lost altogether. The body loses power to express it as in youth, and when this power is lost, health, vigor and elasticity of muscle are soon lost also. We cannot get foolishness really out of us either Sympathy is Tore; CONTESSTON. 9 unless it is talked out before some trusted compan- ion. When we put out a thought in words we often see the error in that thought. Before being spoken we did not see that error. Why is it that when feeling irritable or peevish we make the tart or satirical reply we may have long had in mind to our friend, that so soon after being spoken we wish we could recall it. Why is it that when we discuss a matter with others in the friendly spirit, we see immediately on expressing an opinion of our own the error or defect in that opinion 1 We have unconsciously confessed that attitude. We have put the error into words. In putting the thought into words it is literally made more physi- cal. Being more physical, our physical senses see its nature more clearly. An unspoken thought belongs to the domain of spirit. The spoken thought is so much spirit materialized or put into a certain physical organization. Success in business is furthered through the principle of confession. Where two or more per- sons having a mutual interest in any undertaking talk out freely their views regarding it, and where each one is willing to acknowledge an error in judg- ment on seeing it, as one often will far quicker and more clearly on talking out in the spirit of concord, there is created a great force for success. Bach one confesses his view of the matter. That is, each one in talking out his plan takes it out literally of the spiritual part of his being, and by putting it in words, that plan or thought is made more physical than when unspoken, and being more physical, Sympathy is Force. 10 CONFESSION. whatever of it is defective or advantageous, is more clearly seen than before. On the contrary, if at such a conference one or more of the parties do not talk out their views — if one of the partners pretends to agree with the others, and then when alone antagonize and put out thought of dissatisfaction with the plan agreed upon, there is a weakening of the force necessary to O/arry out that plan. Nothing is more injurious to the body, or retards more the growth of our powers, than carrying about dissatisfaction, which is never revealed to any one. Thousands carry these thought burthens. They are in the heart of femily circles. Every thought demands its physical expression. That is, it demands to be talked out where we can safely talk. If thoughts are kept in we become shut up. We lose ability to open ourselves to others. This is an unnatural condition. It is analagous to a tree on which some power should be brought to prevent the growth of blossom buds and fruit These blossom buds and fruit are the expressions of that tree. If they are checked the tree will die. The buds and fruit have also a spiritual origin. They are the materializations of the mind existent in that tree. The spirit of that tree demands that all its spiritual part be expressed in some physical form. Exactly so do our spirits demand that all our spiritual selves be expressed or confessed in some physical form. Our thoughts are our spiritual part, and when put out in words or souuds they are expressed in physical form. They become then §ymP8^Uiy U Fot^q^ CONFESSION. 11 parts of the physical world around us, and act for good or ill more directly on the physical world than when repressed. For this reason it is better if you have no one to talk to whom you can trust or before whom you dare say many secret things, to go to some retired place and talk them out in words. Say you are grieved or sick or lonely. Or you writhe in the grasp of some secret sin or habit. Or you sufler from envy or jealousy, or lack of system or order. Or you feel yourself a coward morally or physically. Talk it all out. Say what comes to your tongue to say. Get yourself accustomed to express your secret thoughts to yourself You put your thoughts then into physical forms. You cannot get those thoughts out of you unless they are first put into physical forms. Then in such form they will go from you literally. They will be attracted to and assimilate with physical form or materialized thoughts of like order with themselves. The Christ of Judea once drove from a lunatic an insane spirit. As this story is presented to us that spirit was not a personality. It was a mood, a current of insane thought acting on that man's. It was immature thought. It had good in it but was, so to speak, unorganized. Christ threw from that man this current into a herd of swine. The hog as man has made it is a low, degraded animal. It is through man's artificial and unnatural methods reduced fiom the grade it was in its natural state. The sickly unnatural thought thrown from the lunatic was in character and quality like the uu- |^Ym)«\kT Vb» T^^^ 12 CONFESSION. natural thought expressed in the swine. For every animal, every tree, every thing physical that exists is an expression of some kind of thought. Thought of like quality is attracted to its like. The current from the lunatic was attracted to the swine. They served as magnets to attract it. Sympatliy ia Force. THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. Copyrighted 1802, by F. J. Needhah. New tbought is new life. When an invention, a discovery first breaks on the inventor's mind, it fills him with joy, pleasure. The blood in his veins surges with a fresher impetus. The author or poet is lifted into ecstacy of emotion by a new conception ; 1 mean the relatively few creative authors and poets — not the many who, borrowing the fire of Genius, put it in their own lanterns and pass it oft, often successfully as their own. " A piece of good news," as we term it in a period of gloom, depression, discouragement ; the possible realization of a hope, the removal of an ill or dan- ger, is but a thought after all — is but the picture in the mind of the thing desired — is not the thing itself, yet how it brings strength to the whole body. An entertaining spectacle, a drama so perfectly acted as to absorb all one's attention, an interview with one to whom we are strongly attracted, a pur- suit, or exercise or art, which interests and fascin- ates — all these are as food and nourishment, stimu- lation to the body, and in the absorption or excite- Tlioug;b\B «i« \:iQii^E,^x i 2 TflE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. ment of the moment^ bnnger for material food may pass away or be forgotten. 80 we do Dot live by bread alone. But oar na- tures demand ever new and newer food of thought. The play so charming when first seen may become tiresome through repetition. The air so fascinating when first heard, becomes worn throngh familiarity. There may even be longed for, a change from the quality of the thought of the mind most attractive to us. I mean for all these a change, but only for a time. The play, the opeia, the artist may in time be seen again and with increase of pleasure, either from the influence of former association, or from new growths and shadings in the artist's rendering, or from new capacity in ourselves to see what we could not see before. Call, then, all new thought, and if you please new emotion, foixl, and food as necessary to make the relatively perfect physical and mental man or woman as is the bread we eat. We desire ever fresh fiiod ; we similarly desire and need always new and fresh thought. Old thoughts-constant repetition of the same thought — involves decay, sluggishness of mind, sluggishness of brxly. Suppose that we rose each mom with the abso- lute ceitainty that each day was to be a day in- volving to us more or less of the excitement of dis- covery in something usc*ful and enjoyable, and also of similar use to others — something endurable for us and others— endurable for eternity — wnne unex- pected branching out of yesterday's truth, which for ThoogkiUi 9x% Utoiv^ THE ACCE8&ION OF KEW THOUGHT. 3 yesterday seemed fully grown — sometbing telling us bow life may be made still fuller of durable and barmless enjoyment ; some great law or principle in Nature recognized possibly for the first time in some heretofore called " little thing," in the fall of a leaf, in the coloring of a leaf by the autumnal frost ; in its almost equal vividness of color coming through the heat of Spring, in Ught shining out of decay. In the myriad of suggestions which Nature is ever making, and which she will ever write and write so willingly — in the open mind, the receptive mind, the simple mind, whose pages not sci-awled over with other's opinions, or dogmatism or prejudice can be written upon, and after being written upon, have such writing read clearly by its own eyes. What must be the pleasure to such mind to find to-day an increase of improvement in the quality almost despaired of yesterday — an increase of pa- tience in doing the perplexing work — an increase of courage — an increase of perception to see beauty in what yesterday it passed by with indifference — an increase of power to control unruly appetite — an in- crease of power to drive away unpleasant and there- fore injurious thought. Would not such be encouraging, cheering, life- giving, health-giving thoughts? This order and accession of ever new thought knows no stop in any direction. It says: "Are you oixierly to-day f '* You will find some power and room and capacity to be more orderly to-morrow." " Was your last effort in muisic, in painting, in composition, in acting, in Thoughta ax« U^biisciu 4 THE ACCtJSSlOK OF NEW TflOtJGHT. oratory, your greatest triumph f " " You will fiud some way of making it more perfect to-morrow." Tbat will take nothing from the last eflfort. It is only a more beautiful and delicate tint for some already beautiful picture. The consciousness of such never ending growth of improvement is also food for the growing mind, other than bread. Yet it is bread. It is the " Bread of Life," and to be desired as " Our Daily Bread." Would not also the thought each morning that a Great Power, an infinitely wise mind, was always ready to give more knowledge to help you through troubles — troubles from without and troubles from within. Would not such thought, and the trust be- gotten of it, be as food, strength, and healthy stim- ulation 1 Especially when the reality of this Power and its ability to aid had been proven to you many times, so that the hope had become a conviction ? Grant that new thought is healthy stimulatiim and also a necessary food to a more perfected life and the question arrives, " How shall we get it ? " In other words, " How may we attune ourselves or how may we become more receptive to all that is beautiful and useful in Nature ? " For in our religion the use- ful always implies the beautiful. It is almost farci- cal to answer, " Live a pure life." That implies so much ; so much in so many cases to be done ; so much of mherent tendency to be oiitgrown ; so many diliiculties to be met; so many conditions necessaiy tor such life so difficult to make. The desire for accumulation seems a Law of our Natures. Thouichtft are U^ai»u *HB ACCESSION OP XEW THOUGHT. 6 In its cruder working it accumulates money : in its higher form it would accumulate powers and quali- ties of mind. " I am 1100 or |500 richer than I was this morning," says, with satisfaction and pleas- ure at night, the money accumulator. That pleasant thought is to him a bit of the bread of life — but not of enduring life, or in the end, if at all healthy life. " I," may say another man at night, "am richer than I was this morning by so much more patience, by a bit more of skill or dexterity in my art, by ceitain knowledge of which I knew nothing twenty- four hours ago." Are we yet fully awakened to the thought that we are receptacles for thought and with thought, knowledge, and with knowledge Power, and that our capacity for receiving all these may be limitless, and that tbe supply of knowledge, power, new thought in tbe Universe is limitless also, and that it is all ours to draw from, and that the Bank can no more break than Eternity can end. There are thousands of things, events and scenes in your past life which it is more profitable to forget than to remember. By so forgetting you allow entrance for new idea, which is new life. By re- membering you prevent the coming to you of such new idea and life. By " forgetting," I mean that you should avoid living in unpleasant past scenes and remembrances. Absolutely to forget or wipe out completely from memory anything it has once taken note of is im- possible. For everything you have seen, learned, sensed o^* heard is stored away, and is capable under ThoTischtA vra VSi^akSQiu 6 THE ACCESSION OP NEW TftOVGHf. certain circumstances of being brought to view again. In place of the term forgetting it would be better to say you should cultivate the power of driving from your mind and putting out of sight whatever makes you feel unpleasant or whatever you discover that is unprofitable to remember. It is impossible absolutely to wipe out anything your memory has once written on its tablets, for whatever tlie scene, event or experience may have been, it has become a part of your real self or spirit. In other words, your spirit is made up of all its experiences and consequent remembrances ex- tending to an infinite past. Of these some are vivid, some vague, and much is buried out of present sight, but capable under certain circumstances of being called to remembrance. To destroy such remembrance, if possible, would be to destroy so much of your mind. All experiences are valuable for the wisdom they bring or suggest. But when you have once gained wisdom and knowledge from any experience, there is little profit in repeating it, especially if it has been unpleasant. You do actually repeat it when you remember it or live it over again in thought. This is what people are doing who brood over past misfortunes and disappointments. It is what people are doing when they recall with regret their youth as bright and joyous as compared with the gloom of their middle or old age. Live in the pleasant remembrance of your youth, if you so desire. That will do you good. But do not set it Thousbta axe tbinsm. THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. 7 in its brightness and freshness against a dark back- ground of the present. Do not think of it in that vein. Remember that the time of your infancy and youth, with all its freshness and newness, was also the time of some other people's old age when the world seemed stale and joyless, when to them all that life seemed capable of yielding seemed ex- hausted, when nothing seemed to remain but to wither and die. Eemember also that to-day if the world seems less bright than formerly, if the sun seems setting instead of rising, it seems now to the boy and girl of ten or fifteen as it did to you at that age. No person could hold his or her physical body and enjoy life who as they lived on lived in the past and refused to set or open their minds to the future. In so doing they accumulate more and more of the old and relatively lifeless thought, and this element materializes itself on the body. Their flesh, bone and blood then becomes an actual expression of the dead and inert spirit. To live carrying such an ever-increasing load must result only in weakness and misery so long as the spirit can carry it. But the mind rejecting the old which it has no use for and ever pressing on to the new, adds the new thought to itself, and this newness of idea will materialize a newer body. You do actually make the "things before'' pleasant or unpleasant for you according as you think of them in advance. Thoughts axe \;i[d3[k!;;a« 8 THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. Theie is a class of people who, if iti difficulties and any one suggests a way out, instantly raise objections and find difficulties in the plan proposed. When in thought we so find difficulties, we actually make them. To lay awake nights and brood, devise, turn over or invent possible coming troubles is force and industry ill employed in preparing the way for those troubles. In all business we must press on in mind to the successful result. We must see in mind or imagina- tion the thing we plan completed, the system or method organized and in working order, the move- ment or undertaking advancing and ever growing stronger and more profitable. To spend time and force in looking back and living past troubles or obstacles over again, and out of such living and mental action to conjure more difficulties or opposi- tions, is literally to spend time and force in destroy- ing your undertaking, or in manufacturing obstacles to put in your own way. Forgetting the things behind and pressing on to those before is a maxim having a thousand intensely practical applications. Every business success is founded on it. Men who cease to live in old methods and press forward to new, achieve the greatest financial suc- cess. But men who having started out during their physical youth with the new, allow themselves with advancing years to hold on to what was new in their youth, but which is relatively old now, are really on the back track. Money may continue to pour in upon them, but their methods are really Thoughts are things. THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. 9 out of date, and a few more years will see their business superseded by the newer system. If you were debilitated, weak or sick yesterday at any hour, do not commence to-day with Uving in thought in the same weakness or debility at that hour. Forget it, live away from it, and press onward to the thought of being strong, well and vigorous at that hour. When you in mind look behind and live behind in the thought of the sickness, weakness or indisposi- tion of yesterday, you are actually making the con- ditions for having the same physical troubles. When you at the day's commencement in thought look before to the new thing, the thought of health and strength at the time your lack of vigor commenced, you are making the conditions for real- izing such health and strength. If it does not come the first day of such trial, try the next, and the next after that. The state you seek will come in time. Perhaps you say to me in mind : But how Can you prove these assertions ? They have not been realized in our time. "Decay and death at last overtake all." You can commence yourself to prove them. If you experiment with any of the methods here sug- gested for working thought to profitable result and you prove for yourself ever so little, you must there- by gain some faith in this law. If the law is by you proven a little, is it unreasonable to say it will prove more if followed in this direction I Thoughts are things. 10 THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. Unreasoning prejudices are bred out of this con- tinual living in the past. The man of sixty or seventy often Hves in modes, usages and customs pecuHar to his youth. He accepts these as the most fit and proper thing for him. He would probably regard with disfavor and prejudice the man who at his daily business should wear the knee breeches, stockings, waist- coat, ruffled shirt and cocked hat of the eighteenth century. Yet such style Was common one hundred years ago. His great grandfather probably wore such a suit. Yet his great grandfather would prob- ably have regarded with the same disfavor and prejudice the man dressed in the fashion of to-day. So a few years relatively have begotten these two unreasoning prejudices with the great grandfather and gieat grandson, founded only on the fact that they were fashions peculiar to the youth of each. It is, of course, impossible for a person to fly in the face of popular custom or usage — to dress difierently or in certain ways live differently without bringing on him unpleasant and even injurious results. For the action of many minds sending toward you ever the thought of prejudice, dislike or ridicule would tend to injure mind and body. But the sentiment which so sends toward another, who departs from any established custom this kind of thought, when that person affects in so doing no one's peace or comfort, is a gross error. It is an unreasoning mental tyraimy which so regards with hostile mind a man who should to-day adopt the Thoughts are \bin«CA. THE ACCESSION OF XEW THOUGHT. 11 costume of the ancient Greeks — a garb, by the way, more sensible and comfortable than ours. Less than two hundred years ago such a senti- ment mobbed the man in England who carried the first umbrella. Tbis sentiment comes of that fos- silized condition of mind which persists in living in the things that are behind and averts itself from such as are before. Life is a continual advance forward. If we are advancing forward, it is better to look forward. And all are advancing, even the dullest, the grossest, and most perverse. A migbty, eternal and incom- prehensible force pushes us all forward. But while all are so being pushed, many linger and look back. Unconsciously, they oppose this force. So to do is to court evil, pain, disease and distress. Whatever the mind is set upon, or whatever it keeps most in view, that it is bringing to it, and the continual thought or imagining must at last take form and shape in the world of seen and tangible things. I repeat this assertion often in these books and in various forms of expression. Because this fact is the corner stone of your happiness or misery, per- manent health and prosperity, or poverty. It needs to be kept as much as possible in mind. Our thought is the unseen magnet, ever attracting its correspon- dence in things seen and tangible. As we reahze this more and more clearly, we shall become more and more careful to keep our minds set in the right di- rection. We shall be more and more careful to think happiness and success instead of misery and failure. Thou^Yila axe \}[^sii^%. 12 THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. It is very wonderful that the happiness or misery of our lives should be based on what seems so simple a law and method. But so-called *^ simple ^ things in Nature on investigation generally turn out incom- prehensible and ever deepening mysteries. What most concerns us is to know a cause or agency that will produce a given result. When we realize that we can and do think oureelves into what we are, as regards health, wealth and position, we realize also that we have found in ourselves " the pearl of great price," and we hasten to tell our neighbor that he may seek and find in himself this pearl and power also, for no one is made poorer through his finding that which can belong to him alone, and all are made richer and happier as each finds his or her pearl, through the power it gives them to add to the general wealth and happiness. Life is fuller of possibilities for pleasure than have ever been realized. The real life means a perpetual and ever increasing maturity. It means the preser- vation of the physical body, so that it can be used on this stratum of existence whenever the spirit desires to use it. It means the preservation of that body, not only free from pain and sickness, but free from the debility, weakness and decay of what we call " old age," which is in reality only the wearing out of the instrument used by the spirit for lack of knowledge to ever recuperate and regenerate it. Life means the development in us of powers and pleasures which fiction in its highest flights has never touched. It means an ever-increasing fresh- ness, an ever-increasing perception and realization Tbouflfbts are things. THE ACCESSION OP NEW THOUGHT. 13 of all that is grand, wonderful and beautiful in tbe universe, a constantly increasing discovery of more and more that is grand, beautiful and won- derful, and a constantly increasing capacity for the emotional part of our natures to sense such happiness. Life is eternal in tbe discovery and re- alization of these joys. Their source is inexhaust- ible. Their quality and character must be unknown until they reach us. In the words of the Apostolic record, " Bye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him." In so-called ordinary things we do not get out of our lives and our senses but tlie merest fragment of the pleasure they can be made capable of giving us. Our food is capable of giving far more pleasure to the sense of taste than it may now. We do not get near as much pleasure from the ear and eye as they are capable of giving. With bodies more highly developed and refined, food when taken into the stomach should act as a healthy stimulant and grant that impulse, vigor and bounding life it does to the young animal. The movement of every muscle, as in walking, can be made to give pleasure. Through following the Spiritual Law, that peace of mind is in the future to come to many *' which passeth all understanding." That it has not in the past been realized is no proof it will not be. Life, then, whether its forces are in activity or at rest, will be a perpetual Elysium. But millions of our race do not look forward to . such joyous possibilities at all. They have never j Thoughts are things. 14 THE ACCESSION OF KEW THOUGHT. heard of them. The great majority would not be- lieve did they hear of them. They press ou in mind to what? To a belief which grows stronger with years that life is short, that old age and decay are absolute certainties and must come to all, that at a certain age of the body its powers must decrease, and that as weak and feeble old men and women now are before their eyes, so, in time, they must be, and that one great aim of life should be to lay up a store of money to " provide for old age." These are not pleasant things to contemplate. The many do not contemplate them. They shut their eyes to these gioomy views of their future, but they believe in them just the same. They believe and dread. If they believe, they must in mind press on to such belief. It is this pressing forward that makes of the thing believed in a material or physi- cal reality. " Providing for old age " makes the old age of the body, because the person so "providing" sees him or herself for years as helpless and decrepit. What the mind so projects for the future it is making for the future. A material thing (money) is relied on to secure one from ills, when all material things are quite powerless to prevent such ills. Tbe rich man with an aged, worn, diseased body can only buy with his money a better room and bed to live iu than the poor man. His money does not prevent disease and weakness. It cannot give him an appetite for the costliest food. In pain and anguish the Em- peror is in all respects on the same lev^el with the Thoufifhts are thincB. THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. 15 pauper, for in extreme misery a soft bed and nu- merous attendants give little or no comfort. Now in all this, thought element worked in igno- rance in the wrong direction proves that it brings a result, but a woeful one. It is only the cultivation of the power of the spirit over the body that can prevent these ills. That power we first begin to cultivate and increase when we come to recognize and believe that mind or spirit is the power governing our bodies, and that whatever mind persistently images, thinks or imagines, it makes. Now, unconsciously, we image in the wrong direction. We think the old age or wearing out of the body must be, because, so far as we know, it always has been. We press on in imagination and unwelcome belief to gloom and physical decay. We hold these sad pictures ever in our minds. Having no faith in the brighter view, we do not look toward that view to life, and ever increasing life. In the New Testament (the last revelation) we find the Ohrist and Apostolic teaching full of the sentiment of life, and life everlasting. Death is not argued or implied as an absolute necessity, but as an " enemy ^ which is ultimately to be destroyed. It was never said or implied that the advent of " greater revelations " was not to be until millions on millions of years in the future. The dawn of such advent may be now. It is now, not because of any one man's writings or assertions, but because many minds are now open to the reception of the greater revelation, which for centuries has been Thoughts are things, 16 THE ACCESSION OP NEW THOUGHT. knocking at humanity^s door, but could not enter by reason of the obtuseness and dull ear of those whom it sought to arouse and benefit. The only dead people in the Universe are the spiritually dead, those "dead in trespasses and sins," who have not as yet learned to forget or rather to refuse to live in and depend on the relatively dead or inert element of earth instead of that drawn from a higher source. Still the few in the vanguard pressing onward aie crying out : " Why, here under our noses is the greatest of all motive powers! Why, human thought is a real element, a real force, darting out like electricity from every man's or woman's mind, injuring or relieving, killing or curing, building fortunes or tearing them down, working for good or ill, every moment, night or day, asleep or awake, carving, moulding and shaping people's faces and making them ugly or agreeable. Before you give so much of your thought to others, ask, in view of these possibilities, if some is not due to yourself. If you can build yourself up into a living power — if you can, with others, prove that physical health and vigor can take the place of old age — that all disease can be banished from the body — that material riches and necessities can come of laws and methods not now generally prac- ticed, and that life is not the short, unsatisfactory, hopeless thing which at the best it now is, will you not to the world at large do a thousand fold more good than if you expended your thought in feeding Thoughts are thingi. THE ACCESSION OF NEW THOUGHT. 17 a few hungry mouths or relieving a few physical necessities of others ? Our richest men, our rulers, our famous men in art, science and war, our professors, our ministers, our greatest successes, what is their end? Weakness, decay and disease. Our more thoughtful people admit that by the time they have learned some- thing of life, it is time to die. The obituary from the living is at best an apology for the unsatisfac- tory ending of a human life. Mankind demand something better. That de- mand, that cry has been swelling and increasing in volume for many centuries. Demand must always be answered. This demand is now being answer- ed, first to the few, next to the many. New light, new knowledge and new results in human life and all it involves, are coming to this earth. PRENTICE MULFORD. TbooRhts are thiiuri. p^ to p !Tf W W » ro CD OB If^ I R- (D s (D t S I: I I I 2 2 I I I i ' "^ tl $ •^ 4^ o> I M M 55* I a- S I 3 I ^ en I 4^ M 10 M M M Kti Id I I TH a 5= 5..^a S: .*» 5 «^ a ^ vi Oven -^ C»3 Id M O O I I I 1 1 1 1 11 «^a 10 10 10 i I I 8 a < o r G n s «^ (^ '^r I g «« ^ < o n in 5* P p a. •-I o O (0 ^^ hrt QD ^ S ^ M H QD QD % QD o a o o cr o G 10 QTQ CR cr H P o ^ o cr o 5* •1 o ct P- B p cr o a* P P tn o o C/) w H M ro OB lf> a> !2S I R- CQ 9 I. P B n> ^*« en CO a> D- o P cr f^ o cr P, 5* CO to (D s (D 01 01 o o o o t s I: O) M M I ^ I' I M I I I 1 8 I •^ S sJ % ^ r, ^ .. 8 5>='l 0\» ^ I I &• N ^ 4k o> - . 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